Ricompensa
by CamsthiSky
Summary: Captured, Tsuna can only wait for his friends to find him before his captors finish him off for good.
"Tsuna?" Yamamoto asked, looking bewildered.

Tsuna spun around, just managing to suppress a yelp and save himself from falling unceremoniously to the ground. Puzzled, Tsuna tilted his head at his baseball loving friend. "Yamamoto?"

The two were sitting on a tree branch far above the ground. It had been a lot of work to climb up the thick trunk, and by the time Tsuna had reached the branch, his arms felt like lead, but it seemed like the only place he had felt he wouldn't be easily spotted, especially with his gravity defying spiky locks. Apparently Tsuna hadn't been the only one who had thought to hide in a tree, but Tsuna could only wonder why it had to be the _same_ tree.

The swordsman laughed softly, scratching the back of his head. "Sorry, Tsuna. Didn't know you had your eye on this one."

"It's fine, Yamamoto," Tsuna sighed, his shoulders slumping. "As long as Hibari-san doesn't look up here then we'll both be fine."

Indeed, if Hibari saw them both in the same tree he'd probably bite them to death for "crowding" in the same hiding place. Tsuna shivered, not liking the prospect of that in the least. It was bad enough that if Tsuna was found before sundown he would be subject to both Reborn's and Hibari's methods of torture.

Tsuna could practically hear the tutor's words now. _"A good boss should know how to hide well in an emergency situation. Dame-Tsuna, you need more training."_

Anything but training.

"This hide-and-seek game is fun!" Yamamoto (sort of) whispered.

Tsuna just tried not to groan. Hide-and-seek? This was more like hide-or-die. Tsuna just hoped that he could last longer than the time limit, because if he didn't, he was going to be in for a world of hurt.

Yamamoto nudged Tsuna and pointed past the branches and leaves to the ground, where Hibari was wandering around with his tonfa at the ready. The prefect's sharp gray gaze was scanning the area, but, thankfully, it hadn't occurred to him to look up. Tsuna held his breath as the seconds ticked by, and he didn't let it out again until Hibari had walked away from the base of their hiding place.

"That was close!" Yamamoto said, still as cheerful as ever. Tsuna idly wondered how the baseball player stayed so happy all of the time. Wasn't it exhausting?

"Yeah," Tsuna replied. "I thought for sure we were dead."

Yamamoto laughed. "Although, better Hibari than the kid, right?"

Tsuna groaned, unable to handle the mental image of Reborn finding their hiding place. Tsuna probably wouldn't live to see tomorrow. At least with Hibari they had a chance.

"This is such a horrible game," Tsuna whined, scrubbing at his hair in frustration. "Why did Reborn have to suggest this?"

"Well, he did say it was either this or you could climb that cliff one-handed," Yamamoto reminded him. "And playing hide-and-seek is a lot more fun than climbing cliffs."

Tsuna sighed. He knew Yamamoto was right, but he still regretted choosing the game that was going to cause him to have a heart attack the next time Reborn or Hibari walked by.

Tsuna stilled, an odd sensation washing over him. Alarm bells rang in his head, causing it to ache. Tsuna had felt this before. Something bad was going to happen, but what was it? Where was it going to come from?

It all happened in a split second. Almost too late, the alarm bells blared a warning at him and Tsuna just managed to dodge to the left. The bullet that would have shot straight through his head had he not moved whizzed past, lodging into the wood of the tree branch. Unfortunately, the tree limb wasn't all that big, and dodging the bullet had left Tsuna dangling by his fingertips ten feet above the ground.

"Tsuna!" Yamamoto yelled, no longer caring about being quiet. The swordsman reached for his friend's hand, but it was too late. Tsuna's fingers slipped off the bark and the ground rushed up to meet him.

Tsuna hit the ground hard, his only cushioning the cropped grass beneath him. He lay there on his back for a moment, dazed. The world was a blur of indefinite shapes and colors. Taking a few moments to recollect himself and think over what happened, Tsuna didn't haste to get to his feet.

"Tsuna?"

Blinking, the brunet found himself face to face with Yamamoto. The look on his friend's face was enough to spur Tsuna into action. He grunted and pushed himself up, ignoring the brief dizziness that swept over him. He'd had worse.

"I'm fine," Tsuna told Yamamoto as soon as he caught his breath. "I landed on my back and it just knocked the wind out of me."

Yamamoto nodded, the worry lines disappearing as he sat back, his gaze moving back to the tree they had been sitting in minutes before. Tsuna's gaze followed the swordsman's, chocolate brown eyes squinting at the branches in puzzlement.

"What happened?" Tsuna asked. "Where did that bullet come from?"

"I'm wondering the same thing," Yamamoto admitted. The swordsman continued, his rare sense of logic surfacing. "How the heck can you shoot someone when they're sitting in a tree? The shot was a little too accurate to be lucky."

"So you're saying that someone's trying to kill me again," Tsuna said, his voice flat as he flopped back into the grass. "Great, just what I need today. Now I have Hibari, Reborn, _and_ a bunch of assassins after me."

He didn't want to move. He just wanted to go home and take a hot shower. He wanted this day to be over. Tomorrow was a weekend anyways and Reborn had promised that Tsuna would be able to have a day off of training while the Arcobaleno went on a short trip back to Vongola Headquarters.

Yamamoto laughed cheerfully, although to Tsuna, it sounded a little forced. "This mafia game sure gets intense sometimes."

Tsuna stilled. He had forgotten that Yamamoto liked to treat all this mafia stuff like a game.

Tsuna took a deep breath, exhaling slowly to calm himself down. They needed to get out of here. Standing up, Tsuna brushed off his clothes, waiting until Yamamoto followed suit before taking off for Tsuna's house.

They hurried, not eager to be out in the open while it was dark. The sun was barely touching the horizon, but it was still better to be safe than sorry. Besides, the time limit was almost up and the sooner they got back to the house, the sooner they could rendezvous with the other guardians.

His Hyper Intuition flared up again, sending alarm bells ringing through his head, and soon Tsuna was dodging a knife that had been thrown at his exposed back. Yamamoto, having been a few steps ahead of Tsuna, spun around at the brunet's soft grunt. Tsuna yelped as he felt another projectile whip past him, this a hairsbreadth from his face.

"Tsuna!" Yamamoto yelled, pulling out his bamboo sword and putting himself between the mafia boss-to-be and his hidden attackers. Tsuna shook his head and tugged on Yamamoto's arm.

"I'm fine," Tsuna reassured. "We need to go. _Now_. We don't know who these guys are or what they're after. We don't even know _where_ they are. If we're going to stand a chance, we need to find Re-hmph!"

There was no warning at all. No Hyper Intuition alarm bells. No sound to signal an approach. It just happened. A strong hand covered his mouth and nose, cutting off his airways, while another beefy hand held a long, wicked sharp knife to his throat.

"Well said, Decimo," the man behind him hissed into his ear.

Yamamoto spun around when Tsuna had been abruptly cut off, growling when he saw the burly man holding the brunet hostage. "Let Tsuna go!"

Swinging his sword at the man, Yamamoto pushed forward, only for his blade to be halted by a wooden staff. Another enemy had appeared and all Yamamoto could do was try to fight his way to Tsuna.

Tsuna struggled fervently against the burly man, but to no avail. The man was stronger than he was and Tsuna was berating himself for not slipping into Hyper Dying Will mode as soon as he was attacked. The boy's hands pried at the one covering his face, his yells and protests muffled as the man kept his firm hold on Tsuna's jaw.

"Don't struggle, little Decimo," the man cooed. "Watch your friend die quietly, like a good little captive."

Tsuna was getting dizzy, but despite the weakness, he kept struggling. Black spots appeared before his eyes and all his attempts to blink them away were futile. Yamamoto's fight was blurring in and out of focus. Tsuna's struggling got weaker as the lack of oxygen caught up to him. If only he had his gloves on...

They were in his back pocket, and he knew if he were to make a move for them, the man would probably notice. Still, Tsuna couldn't let Yamamoto handle all of this by himself. He refused to be a burden to the Rain Guardian.

He stopped struggling, his hand dropping limply to his sides. To make it seem more realistic, Tsuna let his shaky legs buckle and suddenly, the man was holding up Tsuna's dead weight. The brunet was getting weaker, but he let his eyes slide close, his arms swinging back towards his back pocket as he fell back into the burly man.

"Oh, no you don't," a woman purred to his right, and suddenly both his wrists were trapped together in the woman's grip. "Can't have you going and doing something that would let you escape, now can we?"

Damn it. There had been more than just two. He should have known with his luck that something else would go wrong. With his last remaining strength, Tsuna struggled against his two captors, but he was too weak to do much.

He wished Reborn was here. Besides the tutor being an absolute sadist during training, Reborn still made Tsuna feel safe and comfortable in situations like this, like a safety net. Of course, Reborn often kicked Tsuna over the edge before the brunet knew how to fly, but the Arcobaleno was always there to help Tsuna after he fell, to show him what he'd done wrong and how to do it better next time. In this situation, though, Tsuna would like to think that Reborn wouldn't tolerate the assassination of the Decimo.

 _Reborn,_ Tsuna thought desperately, _where are you?_

And with that, Tsuna blacked out from lack of oxygen.

* * *

Tsuna woke up tied to a chair. He wasn't anywhere familiar, but he—probably correctly—guessed that had set up shop in some secret base. Struggling against his bindings, Tsuna noticed that the dim room also had a small slit of a window, with just enough light streaming through that he could tell the approximate time of day. Judging by the dark orange glow, it didn't look like much time had passed.

"Oh, look at that. Little Decimo's awake," a woman called out—the same woman who had pinned his wrists earlier.

The next thing Tsuna became aware of was the gag over his mouth. How he hadn't noticed it before he didn't know. He whipped his head towards the woman leaning against the wall, glaring at his captor in defiance.

"Oh? Decimo's got a feisty side?" She chuckled. "I like it. Makes you that much more fun to play with."

Tsuna shivered, breaking out in cold sweat at the woman's words. He got the feeling that being tied to a chair in the middle of a cold and dark cell wasn't going to be a pleasant experience.

Looking around the room again, Tsuna eyed the large metal door before his gaze slid to the metal cart full of weapons, the only thing in the room besides the chair. If only he could find a way to get his hands untied, he may be able to get to cart and use one of the weapons to fend off the woman until...

Until what? Until someone came to save him? Until her comrades came rushing in and killed him without a second thought? These people were probably trained assassins. He was one thirteen year old kid who had only learned about the mafia a few months prior. There was no way he could take all three of the assassins, especially without his gloves.

The woman slapped him. Hard. Tsuna's head jerked to one side and he felt a stinging pain in his cheek. He was so stunned he didn't dare move and inch.

"Want to pay attention now, _brat_?" the woman asked, her voice icy.

Tsuna glared at her defiantly, unable to do anything more with the gag still tied over his mouth and his hands still bound to the chair. He may not be able to defeat the assassins, but he wouldn't give into these people. They wouldn't hold anything over him.

The woman chuckled and picked up the wickedly sharp knife that had been held to his throat just hours ago. She touched the point to the cheek she had slapped and dragged it down the smooth skin, splitting it open. She grinned, a maniacal glint in her eyes.

"Let's play a game."

* * *

Revenge. They were after revenge. He had gone through hell so that these damn people could get their stupid revenge on Nono. Capture Decimo and send Nono a message. That had been their stupid plan.

Tsuna was beat and stabbed and carved into for hours upon end, never giving them the satisfaction of hearing him scream. Even he himself was surprised that he was capable of such a feat, especially when the gag came undone. At the end of the beating he was left bruised and cut up. He was exhausted from the mental and physical torment, but he held on. He couldn't let go after all of the effort he put into staying silent while they had their fun with his body.

The woman pulled his sore jaw up so that defiant chocolate brown eyes gazed into icy blue.

"Look here, kid," the woman said coolly. "We don't really have anything against you; we just need to send Nono a little message. Boss figured that the best way to do that would be through you. The little brat who would become Decimo someday."

Tsuna didn't say anything—not that he could with her holding his jaw that way—and continued to glare at the cold woman who had tortured him for hours, laughing every time he had flinched or groaned in pain—not screaming didn't mean he could completely hold back his pain.

"Don't be that way. We'll be done after one last thing," the woman reassured mockingly, smirking as she knelt before him. "After that, we'll let your precious little friends know where to find your bloodied corpse."

Tsuna couldn't believe his ears. After all of this they were just going to kill him? He scolded himself and his foolish belief that they might let him go after they delivered the "message" to Nono. They were assassins. Of course they wouldn't let him go.

The woman's smirk widened into a maniacal grin, raising the knife to Tsuna's bare chest—where his shirt went, he wasn't sure, but he hadn't remembered it ever being taken off—and cutting deep. Tsuna gritted his teeth at the pain as she cut from his right side to his left, probably having some kind of purpose.

Halfway through, he finally broke. He screamed at the unbearable pain ripping through his chest. It felt like she was cutting his heart out. Soon, Tsuna realized what she was actually doing. Through the haze of pain, he could see that she was carving a word into his chest. One that would stay engraved into his skin forever should he live through this. It would scar and be a reminder for him of what had transpired.

 _Ricompensa._

"Wha..." Tsuna trailed off, unable to get any more words past his dry lips.

He stared down at his own bloodied chest in bewilderment. It was an Italian word. He looked to her in askance. Complying, she leaned over and whispered the meaning into his ear.

It was then that the large metal door slammed open, surprising both Tsuna and the assassin. Both turned their gaze toward the door and both their eyes widened in disbelief. There, standing in the doorway, was his Famiglia. Gokudera, Yamamoto, Ryhoei, Chrome, Lambo, Hibari, Dino...and Reborn. They were all there. And all of them frozen, staring in horror at Tsuna's bloodied state...all except Reborn.

Reborn had taken one look at his battered student and tilted his fedora down, hiding his emotions from the room's occupants and directing his fury at the woman that had done this to his student. Tsuna just hoped the Arcobaleno could be furious enough for the both of them. He was too tired to feel anything but pain.

"What the _hell_ are you doing to my little brother?!"

The woman laughed, standing in front of Tsuna's bound form. "Wouldn't you like to know? I don't know how you got in here, but if you think-"

A shot echoed in the confined room, and the woman was cut off when the bullet hit its mark. The woman collapsed backwards, landing at Tsuna's feet to show him the bleeding hole in her forehead. Reborn stood before the stunned Vongola members, green gun held before him.

The room was silent before his friends rushed into action, surrounding him and fussing over him. All Tsuna could do was lean back into his chair, exhausted by the way events had played out over the past few hours.

"Tsuna, are you alright?"

Tsuna turned his unfocused gaze to Dino, cracking a small smile. "Well, I'm...not dead."

That didn't seem to reassure his self-proclaimed older brother in the least as the blond fussed over him, tugging gently on Tsuna's bindings. For that, Tsuna was grateful. He was getting sick of this damn chair.

"Tsuna."

Tsuna tore his eyes away from Dino and settled them on his tutor.

"Reborn," he whispered hoarsely.

"What happened?" the Arcobaleno demanded, leaving no room for funny business. Dino glanced at the tutor in concern, having just finished untying the last of Tsuna's bindings.

"Reborn, surely now is not-"

"Revenge," Tsuna croaked, cutting Dino off. He was severely dehydrated by this point and he had lost a lot of blood. He was dizzy and felt like he was going to pass out at any moment. But so what? This was his family. This was Reborn. "They said...they said it was revenge against Nono."

"Who were they?"

Tsuna shrugged weakly. "No clue. They never said anything about themselves. Just that they wanted revenge against Nono."

"I'll find out," Reborn said as Yamamoto and Gokudera worked on stemming the blood of the worst of his wounds. He winced when the antiseptic spray washed over his wounds but didn't complain. He was confident that he would live now, so what was a little more pain?

"Hang on, Tsuna," Yamamoto said, sounding a little less optimistic and a little more worried than usual. "We're going to get you out of here soon."

Gokudera didn't say anything, and instead sat back, staring at the word carved into Tsuna's chest. The bomber's eyebrow twitching with suppressed rage. It made sense, thinking about it. Gokudera was the only one in the room that was able to read Italian and wouldn't be able to take it in stride—Dino and Reborn could, but they were neck deep in the mafia and probably had barely given the word a second glance.

" _Reward_?" Gokudera seethed, his voice shaking with anger. "They call this a _reward_?"

"It's their retribution," Tsuna explained in a low tone. "Their revenge and my reward for making it to Decimo only for the Ninth's problems to be dumped...on my...shoulders..."

He was nodding off now, his exhaustion overcoming his need to stay awake. He was tired, but he needed to convey one last message to his friends.

"Thank you...for coming to find me..."

And then Tsuna let the blackness overtake him once more. It was okay, though, because his family was here to catch him.

* * *

 **So this is a little darker then I usually write. I actually started writing this two years ago and found it a couple months ago. I rewrote it, and now here we are. Please leave a review on your way out. I'd really like to hear what you guys have to say.**

 **As for War Torn, it's coming along. Seriously. I'm hoping that I can get another chapter out soon. I've gotten like half of it finished. If you guys have any questions or just want to chat, I'm _hometothesky_ on tumblr. I also have a schedule on my profile for all my stories. **

**I'm also thinking that I might add a sequel to this sometime, but don't hold your breath. It's a struggle just to continue with my other stories.**

 **Thanks for reading guys!**


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